Perceptions of Treatment by Police

Personal Interactions: Impact on Attitudes Toward Police

Personal interactions have the strongest impact on perceptions. People form opinions of the police based on their own interactions with them or the experiences they hear from trusted friends and family. [1]

People tend to focus on how police treat them — the process and interactions — rather than the final outcome of those interactions. For example, research shows that people report positive impressions of an officer who treated them fairly and respectfully even if the officer gave them a speeding ticket. [2]

Research also shows that an officer's demeanor and actions are crucial to perceptions of police legitimacy. If officers communicate well, listen and treat citizens with respect, citizens will respond in kind. [3]

People who perceive that they received “procedural justice” are also likely to perceive the police as legitimate and trustworthy and are likely to comply in the future. Procedural justice is the notion that a process is fair and that people have the opportunity to be heard, are treated politely and respectfully, and are judged by a neutral system free of bias. [4]

The Media: Impact on Attitudes Toward Police

Media accounts of police misconduct also influence perceptions of the police, but less so than personal interactions.

Frequent exposure to media reports of police abuse or corruption is a strong predictor of perceptions of misconduct and supports the belief that it is common. [5] African-Americans who live in high-crime areas and who regularly hear others talk about police misconduct are especially likely to believe misconduct is common.

Conversely, a nine-month study of five precincts in New York City found that in the absence of major scandals, news coverage of the police did not have a significant effect on citizens' views of the police. [6]

Ongoing Research

​The focus of the study is to explore police contacts and its consequences on public views about police legitimacy — both among groups most likely to be stopped and with the general public. Using a two-wave panel design, a stratified random sample of 1,000 New York City residents ages 18-26 will be surveyed to test two hypotheses on the relationship between policing and legitimacy under conditions of intensive surveillance and high rates of police-citizen contact. First, the study will examine whether the impact of police street stops on views about police legitimacy is mediated by how the police exercise their authority when dealing with members of the public, i.e. on police comportment with standards of professionalism and fairness. The answer to this question is central to answering the question of whether the widespread use of police street stops for crime control is a sustainable approach to policing. Second, to the extent that the impact of street stops is filtered through public views about police professionalism and fairness, this study will identify those aspects of police conduct that shape the perceived impacts of street stops on police legitimacy.